A blog where I list my strength training exploits and give my thoughts and opinions about various strength training strategies. I also include other happenings which might be off-topic, because hey, there are other things to life than strength training

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

My two cents on diet

As a gym trainer, this is a very common start of a conversation between a new gym member and myself if they come to me for help:

Client: "I want to lose weight and get toned."

Trinigirevik: "Just to let you know, yes, exercise will help you to lose weight. However, you can have the best exercise program, if your diet is not up to scratch, you will not lose the weight."

Client: "So what do you recommend?"

Trinigirevik (now I'm talking to you viewers on the interwebs):

"Now before I continue, just to let you know I'm not a diet professional and if you want someone to structure a diet for you, contact a dietician. However, that is going to cost you, but if it's necessary, do it.

For most people, I think one simple change in their diet is going to have a major change in their body composition. Most people in this world like sweet things. Now there's nothing wrong with liking sweet things. I like sweet things too. However, there are sweet things that will get you fat, and there are sweet things that will help you lose fat.

According to this link, one person consumes appoximately 24lbs of sugar per person per year. In other words, the global consumption of sugar is approximately 144 billion lbs. No wonder 1 billion adults are overweight and 3 million are considered obese.

Too much of this...

Can lead to this

I have a simple suggestion. Instead of eating 3 cheesecake slices, eat as much apples to your heart's content. Instead of drinking 6 sodas a day, drink 6 glasses of water a day (and more). In other words, satisfy your sweet tooth with fruits: apples, pears, mangoes, soursop, guavas, grapes etc. There are many others that you can have at your disposal. They are more satisfying, as in they make you feel full faster and longer. So your hunger urges are reduced and you just cannot put in the same amount of calories in one setting as say 3 slices of cheesecake and 2 Coke drinks.

Consuming more of this...

Can lead to this

Diet is an extremely broad and deep topic, and there are many angles where this can be tackled. However, I think this advice here is advice you may have heard before. There is a reason for that; because it works! BUT IF YOU ARE DIABETIC, CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR AND DIETICIAN!!!! This is one of the instances where you have to spend the money on a dietician. But for most people, doing this simple switch can go a long way in helping one to lose weight. And if you do this in conjunction with strength training, you may be turning heads at the beach one day."